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We arrived in on Friday afternoon to Athens and met up with my parents. I have not seen them for 3 months, and Rob for 6, so it was a very joyful reunion.
Birds eye view of Athens
Over the next 3 days, we explored Athens together before leaving to see part of the mainland. We took a funicular up a mountain to get a birds eye view of Athens. I saw mile upon mile of white and cream apartment buildings. About 4 million of the estimated 10 million Greeks live in Athens, so it is a very densley populated city. Unlike other European cities, it does not really have an "old city center". There are ancient Greek ruins scattered all over the city. You can turn a corner and see an ancient column in between apartment buildings.
The Greeks are famed for Mediteranian cuisine for a reason. We ate delicious Greek traditional food like Greek salad, mousaka, rice in grape leaves and others I had never heard of before. My parents have a good nose for restaurants, and even found a great chinese/thai restaurant.
We saw the famous Greek Guards at the parliament building. The scots are not the only "manly men in skirts!"
Greek parliamentary guards
Athens flea market
There is a main tourist section near the Acropolis. You find with restaurants, shops and a gigantic flea market selling every Greek tourist chachki in the universe. We wandered narrow streets where shop owners stand in the door and try and entice you in, and listening to languages from all over the globe.
Parthenon
Rob and I visited the Acropolis (my parent seen it before we arrived). It is on an elevated hill you can see for miles. There area actually a number of buildings on the site. The Parthenon is the most obvious, and it is gigantic. In ancient times, it contained a 3 story tall gold and ivory statue of Athena and was the heart of Athens. Now it is really just a shell of columns. It was heavily damaged in the 1800s when explosives stored in it exploded. It is slowly being restored.
The four of us visited the Greek archeologichal museum. There you can see the top collection of Greek antiquities in the world. We saw pottery, bronze statues, marble statues, and incredible gold masks and jewlery.
Next blog entry: Our trip to ancient Delphi, Olympia and Mycnae
